The River Lethe
by Euphuism
Summary: They part ways at the ravine where it all began. Where there had been nothing, now there was everything, and nothing would be the same. mild AU. Zutara.


_AN: An AU of sorts, written on a whim, and one of my longest one-shots to date. :D_

**The River Lethe**

She wakes in a room she does not recognize in a bed that is not her own.

An old woman sits at her side, smiling in a way that is both assuring and unnerving, a gesture that only one who has walked this earth and seen its secrets can achieve.

_I don't know you._

Her voice is raspy, even to her own ears, as if it hasn't been properly used in a long while. The old woman laughs, throwing her head back in an action that only furthers the baffling effect of her smile. _You wouldn't would you. My name is Su._

The old woman, Su, tells her (in a rather roundabout way, as women of her age are wont to do) that she was found in the bottom of a ravine, battered and unconscious, but alive. She has suffered few minor injuries, the more pressing being a nasty bump to the head, (though Su assures her it shall heal nicely, just as everything else).

The old woman pulls an object from somewhere off to the side and places it in her lap. It's a dagger, beautifully crafted, and the scabbard is marked with a hastily inscribed message. _For Katara._

Su says it was found on her, and she leans in to peer over her shoulder. _Katara is your name then?_

She runs a sluggish finger over the unfamiliar words, equally lethargic mind working to make sense of her situation. Meeting the curious eyes of her only companion, she answers honestly in a voice she does not recognize. _I don't know._

* * *

Where there should have been _everything, _there was _nothing, _and the old woman, Su, is just as perplexed about this as she is. She's assured her that it's most likely a side effect of the nasty bump she'd taken to the head, and sets right to work on various remedies to help her body (and mind) heal faster.

Su has taken to calling her Katara, only because the ornate dagger is the only object she carries with her that holds any hint of an identity. The name doesn't feel _wrong _exactly, but just as unfamiliar as everything else.

The woman tells her that nothing else was found on her or _with_ her, but there was _someone_. A boy, (_there always is, isn't there, _she'd muttered puckishly), and he'd suffered head injuries similar to her own.

He wakes up on a cloudy day, while thick sheets of rain pound against the windows of Su's small hut.

Katara isn't there to see it of course, because Su has kept them in separate rooms (_it's only proper, really) _but she is close enough to hear it. It was no strange occurrence to hear the old healer speaking to herself at odd times of the day, and Katara surely wouldn't have paid this particular instance any attention had it not been for the raspy voice that, after a few moments of silence, spoke back.

* * *

They meet three days later, when he is strong enough to sit up in bed against the pillows Su fluffs behind his head.

Katara knows the old woman is hoping a meeting will trigger something in their memories, because the old woman is a firm believer in 'romance and the power of love' and because they are 'such young hearts, just beginning to bloom' and surely, having been found together, they simply _must _be star-crossed lovers who'd met an unfortunate accident during one of their midnight trysts.

She regards the boy with as much candor as she dares, which isn't much, because he's all but glaring at her under his dark fringe of bangs. His shirt is ragged and torn and she assumes Su didn't have anything suitable for him to wear. He has scars, more than just a few of them, but none as glaring as the one that mars nearly the entirety of the left side of his face. She tries not to stare, but then isn't so sure he's even aware of the disfigurement himself; after all, Su has said he is in no better condition than herself.

* * *

From then on they spend their days together. They eat together, read together, listen to Su's ramblings together.

Their lives revolve around one another and Katara is pleased to discover that despite their terse first meeting, (at least, that she can remember) Lee (as they've dubbed him, taken from a worn inscription stitched on the collar of his tunic) is actually quite amiable. He's shy, but straightforward, and she finds she likes his less-is-more manner of speaking.

Su serves them tea in the sitting room now, and feeds them small amounts of rice and bits of bland meat. She says they aren't ready for anything stronger yet and this diet continues for several days.

After a good three, Lee decides that their caretaker is a 'crazy-old coot' and sneaks into the kitchen to show the old woman just how strong he really is. He vomits for two hours straight as Katara looks on in pity, alternately offering him wet towels and helping him hold back his bangs.

She doesn't tell him I-told-you-so, because the darkly amused looks he gets from Su for the next three days are so much worse.

* * *

They are stronger now, and Su has them moving about the house, performing mild chores and activities.

Lee sweeps the porches and the kitchen, stacks wood, (for Su fears that more stormy weather is on the horizon) and sometimes washes the dishes. He hates this particular job the most, and when Katara, curious as always, inquires as to why, he is unable to provide an answer.

Katara is put in charge of the laundry. It's mundane, the constant cycle of wash, hang, fold, and repeat, but she finds small pleasures in simply observing the large tub of water.

Sometimes she sits for hours over the laundry, watching the way the water twists and turns, relishing the feel of it slipping through her fingers.

She doesn't understand this fixation, nor does she pursue it. She comes to acknowledge it as yet another of the mysteries that she has come to associate with her life.

* * *

They begin to find simple pleasure in little discoveries.

Katara, as they realize, is quite proficient with herbs and healing remedies. It seems to come to her out of some form of natural instinct and she spends many hours with Su in her greenhouse.

And Lee, as they find out, is rather adept at making tea.

Much like Katara's ease with medicines, there doesn't seem to be any explanation for it. They decide, though, that they are content to let him handle all things related to leaves and hot water, for the concoctions he cooks up are far superior to anything Su has ever brewed.

* * *

Though their separate chores keep them busy, often isolating for long hours of the day, Lee and Katara still manage to spend time together.

The scar still captures her attention at times, when he's sleeping or when she thinks he isn't paying attention. He only ever catches her staring once, and he only scowls (for Su has allowed him use of her mirror by now, and he knows what it is that marks him) and remarks that the fish isn't going to boil itself and quite frankly, he likes his fish dead before he swallows it.

In her embarrassment, she snaps back at him, flushed with indignity. He shows no hesitation rising to the bait, and (because Su is not there to referee) their tempers meet in a match befitting the record books.

Consequentially, this is the same day she discovers that with the right amount of righteous fury, water can be bowed to her will.

* * *

She is a bender, Su says, and smiles mysteriously.

Katara's nerves stay hopelessly frayed for the next few days and she politely refuses to go anywhere near water until Lee demands that she bathe because, (according to him) she smells much like Su's cat, (a pet that had died two weeks previous in the garden and that due to a sinus condition, Su cannot smell).

Indignant as ever, Katara does decide a day later that perhaps a bath would be prudent and sits three feet away from the washtub for exactly three hours before she summons the courage to actually get in.

When Zuko unintentionally walks in on her two hours after _that_, he finds her sitting in the middle of the floor, soaking wet, (and still in her under-wrappings, thank goodness) twirling a large bubble of sudsy water in a circle around her head.

* * *

Lee is quick to let her know that he is not impressed, and that he is only glad that now at least she won't accidentally drench him every time her moods swing. He is drenched for this comment, and only after which does she promise never to _accidentally_ drench him again.

* * *

Su manages to dig up a scroll on waterbending and Katara spends hours pouring over its contents. There are no forms, only a basic one which Katara replicates and masters with ease, but the stories fascinates her.

Lee takes up reading some of the basic history scrolls, and they sit together for long hours between their chores, consumed with their reading. This keeps them busy for a good week and while it all seems so familiar, so tip-of-the-tongue, nothing triggers anything in either of their memories.

Su sits with them sometimes, answering questions and telling stories in a way that make the things they read seem all the more real. The feel like children, (even though they most certainly are not) and the old woman seems to enjoy having their attention.

It has not gone unnoticed that she lives alone, and Katara thinks that even Lee must pity her, for he listens to her with such rapt attention that Katara struggles to make sense of him.

* * *

It storms for a solid four days and they take to reading by candlelight.

Su lights a fire in the fireplace and every so often a draft from the storm raging outside sends the flames into a flickering frenzy. Katara watches Lee as he watches the flames and she is enthralled by the hungry stare with which he gazes upon them.

She's read about the four Nations and Su tells them of each; of their strengths and weaknesses, of their cultures and their peoples.

Katara doesn't know what to make of Lee or of herself but she can tell just by looking at him, and by looking in a mirror, that she most definitely is Water Tribe, and he, most definitely, is not.

One of these days, as the small house creaks under the force of a stronger gale, Lee (who typically is content with the texts, unlike Katara, and rarely seeks out Su for answers) asks her to tell them of the Fire Nation.

Su's smile dissipates and suddenly remembering a pot of tea she'd left on to boil, she rises and leaves them to wonder after her.

* * *

A week later the sun comes out for the first time in a nearly a month and Katara, lightheaded with the joy of being allowed outdoors, goads Lee into sparring with her.

She is overconfident in her newfound ability to _freeze_ the water she controls and taunts him in a way she thinks is merely playful. He doesn't find it the least bit amusing and asks her how it's fair that she can use her water but he has nothing but his bare fists. She laughs at him and says she doesn't care. This angers him and he rushes her with all the pent up energy he's stored in his weeks of bed-rest.

They are both surprised when she sidesteps him easily, without even a second thought, _and_ when he doesn't even stumble before twisting and thrusting a fist towards her face.

And when a small puff of flame and smoke bursts from his fist and knocks them both backwards, Katara can do absolutely nothing but stare at him as he stares at his fist, both shocked into silence.

* * *

Lee is not nearly as cautious of his newfound ability as Katara had been, nor does he hesitate in going back over the scrolls in the sitting room, devouring every bit of information about the Fire Nation he can find. There isn't much to _be_ found though, and Su continues to politely decline to tell him anything further, so he resigns himself to learning the waterbending forms Katara has made up and adapting them to suit his firebending.

His scar fascinates her now, and her curiosity is suffocating as she wonders at how a firebender, (and such a skilled one at that, for he has harnessed his newfound ability as if he'd never been without it) could come to be so horrifyingly injured by his own element.

One day as they eat lunch together under the mid-afternoon sun, her curiosity gets the better of her and she can't help but touch it. He pulls back instantly of course, glaring at her under bangs that have gone too long untrimmed. When she doesn't speak or offer any other explanation, he pulls himself to his feet and disappears into the forest. She never mentions it again, and pays careful attention to tame her wandering gaze.

* * *

As the seasons change and the days become longer and the air warmer, Lee and Katara begin to spend their time exploring the forest surrounding Su's small bit of land.

The find the ravine where they'd been found (for Su has told them of their rescue) and find that it brings back nothing. Katara thinks for a moment that she had a flash - _cold, downpour, pain_ – but there is nothing else and they move on with nothing gained.

Later, they discover a creek that leads to a small pond. The waters are clear enough that they can see straight to the bottom and Katara delights in many days spent molding and perfecting her bending.

There is a large slab of rock to one side where Lee spends his time, either reading, refining his own bending, or simply watching Katara. The latter seems to occupy the majority of his time as of late and if Katara notices she does nothing but put a little extra flair into the wild forms that dance above her head.

* * *

Their memories have not returned, and Su has not stopped caring for them as if they were her own children. She continues to experiment with her herbs, feeding them concoction after concoction in hopes that one of them might speed the healing process.

It is only a few weeks after the storm that her two charges notice her swallowing some of her own medicines and begin to fear for their caretaker's well being.

* * *

They spar together now, because they've read everything to be found in Su's sitting room and tooling around the house has become depressingly boring.

There isn't much effect from their matches (for they both know only a handful of forms, all of which they've practiced together so there are no surprises) but Katara delights in trying to force Lee into the water and Lee seems to enjoy teasing her by hiding amongst the billowing towers of steam they create.

They spend their days together, always together, and even when they are performing their daily chores, (for Su _is _indeed ailing, and they are more than eager to help wherever they can) they share furtive smiles and silent jokes.

They've become friends, good friends, and have become less and less concerned with the mysterious loss of memories of another time, another life. They are concerned with nothing more and nothing less than what Su might decide to make for dinner that night and what new form of entertainment they might discover the next day.

* * *

Three months to the day that Su Yin rescued them from the ravine, Katara wakes to find their beloved caretaker dead in her bed.

Half blinded with distress she stumbles backwards, confused, and knows only that the walls of this house that is quite suddenly _not _her own are suffocating her and she _needs _to get out.

She doesn't mean to go to their pond but her feet carry her there anyway, stumbling awkwardly over roots and rocks as she goes, aware only of her desire to get away, as far and as fast as she can.

At first, when she arrives at the place where she's spent so much of her time in the last months, the figure standing on the large slab of rock looks so much like a mirage in the pouring rain that she briefly wonders if this is indeed a dream because it can't possibly be reality.

His head hangs but he stands tall and proud, stance wide and shoulders back. She almost doesn't recognize him for how _different_, how utterly _wrong_ he looks.

She is only aware of moving closer to him when her feet finally halt a mere arms length away. Something is _off_, something is _wrong_, and she can't put her finger on what exactly it is until he says her name in a voice so different than the one she's come to know.

_Katara._

Dark and broken, it sounds so unfamiliar in its familiarity that it shocks her to her core.

* * *

He steps forward and before she has a chance to move away, he presses something into her hands. It's the dagger Su had shown to her, the only item she'd carried with her that'd hinted towards her identity, and her thumb unconsciously brushes over the inscription. _For Katara – Never give up without a fight._

It's like a dam breaking in her mind; the memories, so long forgotten, now rush forth without cease. Her breaths come in pained gasps as she relives a life she wishes she could forget and she collapses to her knees.

_Zuko._

His name is breathless on her tongue, dredged up from some dark place in the recesses of her mind she no longer recognizes. It pains her to speak it aloud, and she closes her eyes against the onslaught of emotion that clouds her vision. _Fear. Anger. Uncertainty. Betrayal. Hurt. _

He drops to his knees beside her and it only further confuses her. It's an action Lee would not hesitate to perform and one that Zuko would sooner die than stoop to.

They share long moments of somber silence, neither moving, not even as the sun casts long shadows on their drooping forms and the air turns as crisp and cold as the emptiness in their hearts.

* * *

Now, where there had been nothing, there was everything, and everything had changed.

They part ways at the ravine where it all started. The rain has ceased for the moment, and their boots squelch uncomfortably in the deep mud.

Katara tells him to keep his dagger and presses it firmly into his hands. It's the second time it's been returned to him by someone he's cared about, and it hurts no less this time than it did the last. She's crying, and he wishes he was more adept at dealing with things like women and emotion.

Then she's taking a step back, one away from him, one towards her brother, towards the Avatar and her future. He stands at the crossroads, his purpose as blurred as her figure, becoming smaller and smaller with each beat of his heart.

_Nothing_ would be the same.

* * *

_AN: __The ending's weak, I know, but it couldn't be helped. My brain was just done with it.__ I'm not going to bum for reviews, but they do make me happy. ;)_


End file.
